McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella reflected post-race in Monza on the pace of Ferrari. The Italian team boss said that Leclerc was very quick on race day but also explained how this speed had been already seen in practice and qualifying of this year’s Italian Grand Prix weekend.
McLaren missed out on winning Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix due to a superb one-stop race from Ferrari’s talismanic driver Charles Leclerc. Stella reflected after his team’s P2 and P3 finish on how quick the home team had been in Monza.
“A very close race with Ferrari,” Stella said in the team’s press release to media. “Leclerc was very quick today, and he was able to win the race by executing a one-stop, while we felt that we needed to go on two stops to make sure we had enough tyres to make it to the end of the race.”
During the post-race media session, the man leading what is now a double title charge for McLaren explained how it was clear throughout the race that Ferrari with Leclerc at the helm had the pace to match the Woking-based manufacturer.
“I think Leclerc was as fast as McLaren today, because he could stay with Oscar in the first stint.” Stella explained. “Normally, when you have the dirty air, and you can stay with the race leader, it means that you are at least as fast as the race leader. This normally leads to some more degradation, like Leclerc had in the final pit of the first stint. And even in the second stint, he was behind the two McLarens, and still he could stay with the McLarens.”
Having said this, Stella continued by explaining how the signs had been there throughout the weekend that Ferrari could be a contender for the win.
“And even if you look at the practice and the qualifying, I think lap times were essentially within the noise of putting together laps. So, I think Ferrari, at this weekend, they were as competitive as us, at least with Leclerc.”
McLaren’s team boss continued by explaining how this could have a positive and a negative impact on his team. First, he stated that it meant his drivers ‘couldn’t simply cruise in the race’. However, having said that, he also highlighted the point that: “At the same time, it’s good news, because we have more cars that can take points away off Red Bull.”
Recent days have seen McLaren admit that they have to now prioritise Lando Norris over Oscar Piastri when it comes to the man they are backing to beat Max Verstappen to the title.
Stella joined Ferrari in 2000 and remained there for 15 years. It was the era of Ferrari’s great successes, with a team consisting of Michael Schumacher, Jean Todt, Ross Brawn and James Allison to name but a few. In his time, Schumacher was very clearly the number one driver. With this in mind, Stella was asked in Monza whether, based on his experience at Ferrari, he felt that sometimes the number two driver would end up not having such a good performance throughout the rest of the year?
“Well, I think even with Ferrari, when there was a successful driver, a successful driver was successful because he was gaining the success on track.” Stella replied. “I think even in the cases in which there was a blatant support from one of the drivers, actually I’m not sure that it wasn’t something that actually backfired, right? So that’s why I think this thing needs to be approached with common sense, need to approach with racing values, and needs to be approached with the support of both drivers, because if one of the two drivers doesn’t kind of accept that we have a certain way of doing racing, we’re not going to succeed.” concluded Stella.
McLaren are the in-form team and further success is very realistic in 2024 and next year too as the well publicised F1 reset is not until 2026. However, even though McLaren are only 8 points from matching Red Bull Racing’s tally of the season so far in the Constructor’s Championship – Ferrari are only 31 points behind the papaya team. Therefore, with 8 breathtaking Grand Prix weekends to come there could still be many twists ahead.
Next up on the F1 calendar is a trip to Baku and a circuit which Leclerc is well known for being quick at. This will come as no surprise to anyone – particularly Stella who is well aware of the threat that the Monegasque driver could pose his team before the chequered flag falls at season’s end in Abu Dhabi.
